When visiting Disney, many families head straight for the E-ticket rides, from Space Mountain to the Matterhorn to Dumbo. But in doing so they not only spend a whole lot of time in long lines, but they miss out on so many magical moments and memories that can be made at the "happiest place on

Disneyland Resort parks have 14 venues and one show that are temporarily closed during May, mostly for major makeovers or special events.
Many of the projects are ending this month as the two parks -- Disneyland and Disney California Adventure -- prepare for the summer season.
Along

Disneyland spokesman Tim O'Day, hired as a parade performer in 1976 and knowledgeable about virtually every Disneyland detail, is practically the grand marshal of the theme park's rich history, including its integration to motion pictures. The co-author of Disneyland: Then, Now and Forever talked

The Walt Disney Company recently announced that an entirely new land based on the Star Wars universe would be coming to Disneyland, likely in 2019. The 14-acre mini universe will feature two major new rides and other attractions including a restaurant based on the Mos Eisley cantina in the films.

Disney raised even more questions with the recent announcement of plans to temporarily close the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island and the Disneyland Railroad to allow for construction of Star Wars Land.
Here's what we know so far: The new 14-acre land will feature two attractions set in a

Mickey Mouse made a triumphant return to the Rivers of America as "Fantasmic!" came back to Disneyland after a more than a one-year absence.
The show, which originally debuted in 1992, went dark in early 2016 as the waterway it is staged on was closed to boat traffic for construction of Star

The annual Cast Canoe Races at Disneyland began in 1963 when employees, who Disney calls cast members, challenged one another to a race.
Nearly 50 years later, the event has evolved into a gathering with more than 600 Disney employees on 72 teams rowing around the Rivers of America in canoes

Would you believe it? An amusement park has hung up the nation's record as "the best-planned city in America" in meeting the needs of people.
It has demolished the "architectural barriers" we know to our cost in every city and town: streets that stretch non-stop with no spot to sit and rest...

Despite the closure of attractions to make room for a "Star Wars" land, and the introduction of dynamic admission pricing that boosts ticket prices for many, the Walt Disney Co. reported an increase in Disneyland attendance this year through March.
In Disney's second fiscal quarter, which

Disneyland's main waterway has always been called the Rivers of America, but it wasn't clear what the name meant.
"We've never even named the rivers," said Kim Irvine, art director of Walt Disney Imagineering.
For the first time, the body of water around Tom Sawyer Island will have

I learned something today.
My comparison article for January 2013 was always going to be about the Rivers of America in Anaheim's Disneyland Park, and its counterpart in Disneyland Paris.
However, until perhaps five minutes ago, I had assumed that the Paris equivalent was also called

Ever wonder what it's like to steer the Mark Twain Riverboat through the Rivers of America at Disneyland? Or how the Radiator Springs Raceway cars get their power?
"Every Role a Starring Role" is one of my favorite Disneyland blogs that takes you behind the scenes with various cast members who

There is a site called Yesterland and it details all attractions that have
closed, from the PeopleMover to the House of the Future, Main Street
Electrical Parade to Carnation Ice Cream Parlor, as well as the seasonal
Explorer's Canoes.
Of the aforementioned attractions, House of the

My how time fly's, seems like yesterday I was asking about when the Rivers of America would be filled again. I never like to visit the park when any of the water is not working. It even bummed me out during the renovation of It's a Small World when I saw the canals were dry. I know, weird eh? Yeah

Disneyland's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will undergo its biggest project in more than three decades when the ride closes Monday for at least nine months.
The Frontierland ride, which mimics a runaway mine train through an Old West canyon, will close so crews can begin a makeover that will

They worked, met, had their first date, and got engaged at Disneyland, with proposal coming in a dreamy location.
Ride operator Andrew Salter met Alyssa Allinson on her first day on the job at Disneyland.
Five months later, Salter asked her out for a first date at Disneyland.

With the holiday season ending Sunday, the Disneyland Resort is closing attractions and switching shows for the slower season starting this week.
Today, Disneyland plans to begin draining the Rivers of America for the first time since 2003 for refurbishment.
All river attractions will be

Disney has offered no timeline for its new "Star Wars" land, but Thursday park fans learned attractions closed temporarily for its construction will reopen in 2017.
Park officials, on their Disney Parks blog, announced the attractions on the Rivers of America that went offline earlier this

Disneyland started refilling the Rivers of America Monday that has been empty for four months by using a unique water-recycling process.
Crews turned on the water shortly after 9 a.m., said Betsy Sanchez, a Disneyland Resort spokeswoman.
Disney emptied the waterway surrounding Tom Sawyer

A year and a half after they were closed to make way for construction of a new Star Wars land, four Disneyland attractions along the Rivers of America are set to reopen.
The Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Columbia, Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes and the Disneyland Railroad will relaunch

Disneyland this week temporarily closed five attractions as the park prepares for next week's celebrity-studded premiere of the upcoming "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" movie.
Crews are building a screen and seating along Rivers of America for the outdoor viewing May 7 of "Pirates of the

A recent four-night stay at Disneyland proves that this rich, glorious theme park, celebrating its 50th anniversary from now until 2007, is best enjoyed as a planned excursion, not as a whim.
Begin with Birnbaum's, an indispensable annual paperback that's available for around twelve dollars.

People going to amusement parks in the post World War II boom times of the early 1950s were looking for fast, not slow; they wanted to be thrilled, not dropped into a peaceful and pastoral setting. But that's just what Walt Disney gave them in The Rivers of America. From the moment Walt Disney

The Mark Twain Riverboat is tentatively set to return to Disneyland's main waterway on May 22 a day later than previously planned.
The other boats on Rivers of America are now back in operation after the waterway was closed for four months, said John McClintock, a Disneyland Resort

Much of the Disneyverse is craftily constructed around clocks and the nature of time, and a fan only need dip into a song, or story, to find references to the meaning, and passage, of hours and minutes.
From the stroke of midnight in "Cinderella" to Cogsworth the clock of "Beauty and the

The building of a space port in a galaxy that happens to be located far, far away doesn't normally prevent an earthbound train from traveling the route it has run along for decades. The port is somewhere deep in the cosmos, light years from this planet, while the train tracks? They've been placed

Disneyland employees have traded costumes for paddles in the 50th annual cast canoe race.
Eighty teams of Disneyland Resort cast members raced around Disneyland's Rivers of America on Wednesday before the Anaheim park opened.
It's a tradition begun in 1963. Teams paddled 1,410 feet in the

Disneyland is set to close multiple attractions and eateries next month to make room for the new "Star Wars"-themed land in the Orange County theme park.
The 14-acre project would be Disney's largest single themed land expansion, CEO Bob Iger said when he announced the project in August at the

To make way for "Star Wars," Disneyland is about to launch its largest expansion ever, which means shutting down a significant chunk of the Anaheim theme park.
In January, 10 attractions and eateries will close - some temporarily, some permanently - only a few months after the resort hiked the

Oh, boy! The Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration begins today!
Disneyland Park opened in Anaheim, Calif., on July 17, 1955, and ever since, it has entertained millions of guests from all over the world. That's no small feat!
"It's amazing to contemplate all that Disneyland has come to

Right after the holiday season, visitors to Disneyland will find a dry Rivers of America.
That's right, dry.
The river is scheduled to be drained beginning Jan. 4 and won't be filled up again until May, according to officials with the theme park.
While the river is drained, many

Disneyland is set to shut down Critter Country for more than a month starting Wednesday.
Crews already began refurbishing Splash Mountain and Hungry Bear Restaurant, two major features in the land in the northwest corner of the park, earlier this month.
Disney decided to close the rest of

Well, howdy there, pioneers and sod-busters ... welcome aboard the ol' Gullywhumper ... Ya know, this here's the boat that ol' Mike Fink used a while back when he took on Davy Crockett for the wildest keel boat race this river has ever seen ... well, we ain't goin' to be doin' no racin ' today, so

As the final scheduled day for the Rivers of America attractions at Disneyland comes to an end, it marks the closing of Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island, the Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Columbia and Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes and "Fantasmic!" for more than a year. Also included in the

Disneyland last drained its Rivers of America seven years ago, so workers found a lot of accumulated stuff when it emptied the green-dyed waterway in January.
But the most unusual item by far was a computer tower, said Dan Chambers, a project manager at Disneyland. Workers are unsure how the

"Critter Country" was originally called the "Indian Village." Until 1971, that section of Frontierland contained Native American shows and attractions. The following year, it became "Bear Country," the first major expansion since the "Haunted Mansion" and cost $8 million. "Bear Country" was themed

The Main Street Electrical Parade, a night-time fan favorite that rolled along Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A. for years, will return in 2017 with its synthesized version of "Baroque Hoedown."
A Disney official said its stay will be temporary but declined to put a time frame on the parade

Yes, I have finally purchased my first cell phone.
No, I am not going to tell you the number. I really don't want anyone calling me (more on that later). I didn't buy the danged thing so folks could call me. Well, actually I did. Sort of.
I broke down a couple of weeks ago as we were

Rafts were making the journey with visitors again from the mainland at Disneyland to Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.
The island was closed in early 2016 as the park worked on shortening the route for the Rivers of America in Frontierland to make room for the 14-acre "Star Wars" land

Well hello to all you Disney fans. I want to tell you about some of the exciting times when working on the river. One of the memorable times I recall quite a bit is working the mid-night shift on the rafts. This was a scheduled shift that started at 1am 9am. I know that seems a bit odd but yes

The Rivers of America is as old as Disneyland, with the Mark Twain Riverboat as its only attraction (with the dry docks for refurbishments), though Mike Fink Keel Boats would open in December that same year. The Rivers and all green waters in the park are interconnected underground, allowing the

A few years ago, The Orange County Register was allowed to spend some time with the crew on board the Mark Twain Riverboat.
Many of the attractions at Disneyland are operated with the push of a button, but the Mark Twain Riverboat is not one of them.
Just like the locomotives of the

If you go to Disneyland on Sunday, May 5, and find yourself surrounded by kids of all shades of pale, looking as sinister as the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, don't be alarmed. It's just Bats Day in the Fun Park, the annual Magic Kingdom gathering of goths and their